Home Field Advantage

So I have been spin fishing again.  For the past four years the only rods I owned were fly rods, and all I have done is fly fish for trout and pan fish.  Since we moved to a place where trout fishing is not the norm, I have been trying to figure out how to consistently land bass on my fly rod.  This challenge is proving to be a tall order for me for some reason (I guess I just think like a trout most of the time).

This was our fishing buddy for part of the afternoon.  (it's a Cormorant)

In an effort to figure out what types of flies I am going to need to consistently land bass, I bought an old cheap spin rod to chuck rubber worms in the meantime and I have been fishing with John, a member of our church.  You may recall my post on how I am still a fisherman first - on that trip I caught a lot of bass and one big one.  John caught four or five big ones, but nowhere near the numbers I was catching.

This just goes to show that I catch bluegill on everything, even a giant bass hook and worm!

This past Friday, John had a day off work and the weather was amazing, so we loaded up the bass hunter (a cool little boat for still water fishing) and hit the water.  As nice as the day was, the fishing was kind of slow.  I hooked up with a big pickerel, but as it tangled itself in the weeds and rolled around it cut my line.  It was a good sized fish and kinda threw me for a loop for the next couple hours.



Meanwhile, John was in the back of the boat hooking up with some bass and pickerels and doing well.  I was having a bad day for catching fish, but honestly, bobbing along on a pond with the weather in the high 70's and a breeze, I was fine with just being there.  So finally on a cast next to some lily pads, just as the worm hit the water there was a thump on the other end of the line.  I set the hook hard and hauled in a bass that was the size of the fish I caught last Sunday.  A nice, healthy, big bass and I felt much better about my day.  After checking the power on the battery the captain made the call to start heading to the truck.  We were getting near the rock I caught the big fish off of the last time we went out and I got a knot in my line and was not able to cast to it.

There it is!  The only bass that I got on the boat.   

So John lobbed one toward it, and I looked back just in time to see him setting the hook (in same hole I caught my monster in less then a week ago).  As soon as he set it we both saw a big splash of water and as he got it to the boat we realized just what he had on the other end of his line.  My fish last week was a hair over 15 inches and a little over 2 lbs.  The lunker John hauled in Friday was close to 19 inches, and weighed a hair over 4 lbs.  (4lbs 2ozs to be exact).  I guess if you fish a body of water long enough you get to know the fish and end up catching big ones on a more regular basis.

Here is the monster fish, and the guy who has home field advantage on this pond.  Maybe I'll put a fly rod in his hand and stand him in a trout stream sometime to show him that I can fish for something just not bass. 

All in all John fished like a champ on Friday and probably caught close to 20lbs of fish.  I guess sometimes it pays to have a little home field advantage.


Well done John, but next time I will land the monster.

-Bruce